The mental load: building a deeper theoretical understanding of how cognitive and emotional labor overload women and mothers

ABSTRACT

The mental load has received considerable public attention especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we synthesize existing literature to argue that the mental load is a combination of cognitive and emotional labor and it is this combination that makes the mental work a load. We argue that the way the mental load operates within families and society has three characteristics: (1) it is invisible in that it is enacted internally yet results in a range of unpaid, physical labor; (2) it is boundaryless in that can be brought to work and into leisure and sleep time; and (3) enduring in that it is never complete because it is tied to caring for loved ones which is constant. We also offer some future directions for addressing the problems associated with the mental load. First, questions measuring the mental load should be standard in health and social surveys to better understand the problem. Second, employers should adopt better policies that allow for greater work-life reconciliation to lessen the mental load. Third, caregiving should be vital infrastructure developed and invested in by governments to reduce competing work and care demands that accelerate the deleterious consequences of the mental load.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental load
• cognitive labor
• emotional labor
• work-family balance
• gender

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Liz Dean

Liz Dean is a Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Liz’s research interests range from the sociology of bodies and corporeal feminisms to understanding the affective dimensions of the emotional and cognitive labour.

Brendan Churchill

Brendan Churchill is a Research Fellow in Sociology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research programme currently focuses on work and employment, including the gig economy and the future of work, and the impact of precarious work on young people, women and families. He is on the Associate Board of Work, Employment and Society

Leah Ruppanner

Leah Ruppanner is an associate professor of sociology and co-director of The Policy Lab at the University of Melbourne. Her research investigates gender and its intersection to inequalities, technologies, and policies. Her 2020 book, Motherlands: How States Push Mothers out of Employment, provides a typology of childcare and gender policies and their relationship to mothers’ employment varies across the US Ruppanner is also a leading expert on COVID-19 and its impact on gender inequality in the US and Australia.